NM County Opposes Flyover Plan Official Criticizes 'NIMBY' Attitude

The Santa Fe County Commission on Tuesday approved a resolution opposing a plan to make northern New Mexico part of a new training area for low-flying military aircraft. The resolution, co-sponsored by commissioners Harry Montoya and Liz Stefanics, passed by a 3-1 vote. Commissioner Mike Anaya provided the dissenting vote. "It's hard for me to oppose the United States Air Force low-altitude navigation training when we depend on them to protect our country. We're saying, 'Yeah, we need you to protect our country, but not in my backyard,'" Anaya said. The Las Vegas City Council and Taos County Commission have passed similar resolutions since the Air Force announced its proposal to establish a "low altitude tactical navigation" training area in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. The plan calls for approximately 700 flights per year — or roughly three per day — originating from Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis. Some would go as low as 200 feet above the ground. The flights "would avoid airfields, towns, noise sensitive areas and wilderness areas by prescribed vertical and/or horizontal distances," according to information provided on the Cannon AFB website. Santa Fe County's resolution cites concerns about the flights' impact on public safety, noise levels, air quality, physical and biological sciences, and cultural and historic resources...more

Farmers & Ranchers Authorize New Alliance

More than 60 representatives from more than 20 national food and agricultural organizations today agreed to incorporate a U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) to focus on working together to enhance U.S. consumer trust in modern food production that ensures the abundance of affordable, safe food. “Today represents a start toward a unified voice for U.S. agriculture,” said Rick Tolman, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association and chair of the USFRA Steering Committee. “While the results of today’s organizational meeting represent the culmination of six months of planning, it is only the beginning of a process designed to create a coordinated effort by and on behalf of U.S. farmers and ranchers. Several participants have stepped forward to officially join the Alliance. Others need to return to their boards to determine whether they will join.” USFRA plans to incorporate this week. Organizations have been asked to respond about affiliation no later than November 1. After that date, a board of directors will be established and will elect an executive committee. Members of the USFRA Board, its executive committee and its affiliated organizations will be announced formally in mid-November. press release

Mexican investigator in Falcon Lake case beheaded, officials say

The lead Mexican investigator in the Falcon Lake case, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, has been killed, his severed head delivered Tuesday in a suitcase to the Mexican military, officials told CNN. "His head was delivered to the army garrison this morning in a suitcase after he failed to report back home last night," Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said. A spokesman for the attorney general of Tamaulipas state in Mexico, Ruben Dario-Rios, confirmed the killing Tuesday afternoon in a telephone interview. The report came a day after authorities in the Tamaulipas state attorney general's office gave conflicting information on whether authorities were pursuing a pair of suspects in the case of David Michael Hartley's disappearance...more

Monterrey, Mexico Now Off Limits to Children of U.S.-Government Employees

The U.S. Department of State has declared that Monterrey, Mexico is now off limits to the minor children of U.S. government workers because of a recent shooting near an American school in that city and the “high incidence of kidnapping” there. Monterrey is Mexico’s second largest city and is located about 150 miles south of the Texas-Mexico border in the state of Nuevo Leon. This is the first time the State Department has ever prohibited U.S. government workers from having their dependent children with them when they serve in an official capacity in a Mexican city, Brian Quigley, a spokesman for the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico, told CNSNews.com...more

School district will pay $610,000 to settle lawsuits over tracking of students' laptop computers

The Lower Merion School District will pay $610,000 to settle lawsuits over its tracking of student laptop computers, ending an eight-month saga that thrust the elite district into a global spotlight and stirred questions about technology and privacy in schools. The announcement brought an abrupt end to a case that divided Lower Merion parents, fueled an acrimonious court battle, and was on pace to cost the district several million dollars. It also followed weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Haltzman and district lawyer Henry E. Hockeimer, including two days of mediation ordered by the federal judges overseeing the cases and pressing for a resolution. Beginning in 2008, the district rolled out a plan to give the nearly 2,300 students at its two high schools their own laptop computers to use in class and take home each day. Administrators never told students that missing computers could be remotely tracked using software that let technicians turn on webcams and see what was on a user's screen. That capability burst into public view when Robbins and his parents filed their lawsuit in February. In it, they claimed that the district secretly snapped hundreds of images from the teen's laptop, including one when he was sleeping. Robbins learned of the technology, they said, when an assistant principal at his school confronted him with a webcam photo. Robbins had never reported his laptop missing, and school officials gave conflicting reasons for tracking his computer...more

The Scientist Vote

`"Vote Democrat," says a meteorologist and noted global warming proponent. But Democrats won't be getting the vote of the esteemed physicist who just resigned from a scientific body for silencing debate. Michael Mann, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center, took to the pages of the Washington Post Friday to say that while "as a scientist, I shouldn't have a stake in the upcoming midterm elections," he regretted to announce that "unfortunately, it seems that I — and indeed all my fellow climate scientists — do." Mann warns that Republicans would launch "a hostile investigation of climate science." But investigation is, in fact, warranted. Harold Lewis, physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been a member of the American Physical Society, the second-largest association of physicists in the world, for 67 years — most of the organization's existence. A couple of days before Mann's piece appeared, Lewis tendered his resignation. Meteorologist Anthony Watts called it "an important moment in science history ... on the scale of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door."...more

'Global Warming Scam'

Below is the text of the Oct. 6 letter that Harold Lewis, emeritus professor of of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sent to Princeton's Curtis G. Callan Jr., tendering his resignation from the American Physical Society, of which Callan is president....As recently as 35 years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside, there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be? How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d'être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society. It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist...more

Cost concerns weakened Forest Service's assault on Station fire, study says

A desire to control costs slowed the arrival of "critical resources" in the attack on last year's disastrous Station fire as the U.S. Forest Service delayed ordering reinforcements from other agencies that had crews and equipment at the ready, according to an internal federal review. The finding contradicts statements made for more than a year by Forest Service officials, who have insisted repeatedly that cost concerns never impeded the Station battle. It is likely to sharpen questions about the firefighting decisionmaking as a local congressional panel prepares to examine the Forest Service's actions. The review by the Agriculture Department, which runs the Forest Service, echoes a Times report last fall that a Forest Service directive to reduce spending might have dissuaded fire managers from using more state and local strike teams and aircraft on the fateful second day of the blaze. The new study also determined that the Forest Service, in opting to concentrate on protecting hillside neighborhoods and the communications towers and observatory on Mt. Wilson, did not stage a sustained direct assault on the back-country front of the fire as it spread into Angeles National Forest. The fire would become the largest in Los Angeles County history, blackening 250 square miles and destroying more than 200 homes, commercial buildings and other structures. Two county firefighters were killed when the blaze roared nearly unchecked into the forest and overran their mountaintop camp...more

Park rangers’ last flight may have been illegal

The two park rangers who died in a weekend airplane crash may have been violating Utah wildlife law. There was no comment from federal officials Sunday about what caused Laurie Axelsen’s small plane to crash, killing her and fellow National Park Service Ranger Brent McGinn. Both were rangers at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and lived in Page, Ariz. The National Park Service has said in a news release that Axelsen and McGinn were “on a scouting trip for an upcoming elk hunt.” Utah’s bull elk hunt began Saturday. State laws and regulations prohibit using an aircraft to “locate, or attempt to observe or locate any protected wildlife” from 48 hours prior to a big game hunt to 48 hours after a big game hunt concludes, according to state regulations. The guide also warns flying low and circling or repeatedly flying over an area where protected wildlife is likely to be found can be evidence of violating the ban...more

Chinese to boost South Texas boom to new high

Parts of South Texas already in the midst of a historic drilling boom soon will get a boost from an unlikely source: China. China's national oil company, CNOOC, will spend $2.2 billion to drill in partnership with Chesapeake Energy Corp. in the Eagle Ford shale, a rich oil and gas formation that lies under 11 counties. Exploration in the Eagle Ford already has brought newfound prosperity to South Texas' hardscrabble farming and cattle country, and Chesapeake said the ramped-up drilling could bring 20,000 jobs to the region. If the Eagle Ford shale's production levels reach forecasted levels, "it could definitely be a fairly strong contributor to the economy and to the investor, particularly in South Texas," said Bob Fryklund, research director at I.H.S. Herold, an energy research firm. I.H.S. has forecast that production from the Eagle Ford shale could reach 1 billion cubic feet a day in 2011, which is pretty robust, Fryklund said. That's the same level as what's currently the largest offshore natural gas gathering spot, the Gulf of Mexico's Independence Hub...more

BLM plan draws fire

Ranchers, a company drilling for carbon dioxide, recreational users and private landowners are up in arms over the resource-management plan adopted in June for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. What they're seeing is not what they understood they would get when the resource-protection plan was being crafted, disappointed stakeholders say. Cattlemen are receiving fewer grazing permits and less time on federal land; a large mineral-extraction company is seeing its ability to operate curtailed and, as a direct result, county governments may receive less tax revenue. Heather Musclow, acting manager of the monument, thinks their dissatisfaction is normal reaction to change. Protests to BLM headquarters in Washington after the preferred plan was selected were rejected, she said. "There's nothing new since the decision so there shouldn't be any surprises," Musclow said. "We're doing business in a new way, so now they would have to take us to court." Canyons of the Ancients, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, encompasses 171,000 acres in Montezuma and Dolores counties. The monument, located 10 miles west of Cortez, has 12,000 acres of private inholdings and 400 acres managed by the National Park Service within its boundaries...more

Utah counties asking for gov's help in protecting grazing from pipeline

Officials in several Utah counties are asking Gov. Gary Herbert for his help in protecting the grazing of livestock on public lands. Leaders in those counties - including Cache, Box Elder, Rich, Uintah and Tooele - are concerned about agreements that El Paso Corporation, parent company of the Ruby Pipeline, entered into with two environmental groups earlier this year. Those contracts call for the establishment of two "conservation funds," with one major goal being the retirement of federal grazing permits. "Whether it is to remove this part from the agreement or the agreement completely dissolved, we ask for your support in helping us to see that this does not become the catalyst that would end the cattle industry in the West through the elimination of grazing right permits," reads the letter to Herbert signed by officials in the five counties. The Utah counties are members of a multi-county coalition with representatives from the four western states that Ruby Pipeline will pass through, including Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Oregon. Work on the 42-inch natural gas pipeline is currently progressing in those states. Angie Welling, spokeswoman for Gov. Herbert, told The Herald Journal on Monday that the governor is sensitive to the counties' concerns...more

DNA Tests Indicate Yellowstone National Park Elk, Not Bison, Most Likely To Spread Brucellosis

While bison in Yellowstone National Park draw the most attention for the potential to spread brucellosis to livestock in the surrounding states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, genetic studies indicate that elk are most likely behind the disease's spread in the region. A small story in the fall issue of Yellowstone Science discusses that conclusion. A DNA genotyping study conducted in 2009, and which was just recently published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, examined samples from 10 bison, 25 elk, and 23 cattle collected in the greater Yellowstone area between 1992 and 2003 and found that DNA markers for Brucella abortus were nearly identical in elk and cattle but "highly divergent" from those in bison. "The data, which suggest that elk rather than bison are most likely the origin of recent outbreaks of brucellosis in Greater Yellowstone cattle, are consistent with the fact that elk comingle with cattle more often than do the wild bison, which have been managed to prevent dispersal outside established conservation areas," notes the Yellowstone Science article...more

Sheep link to bighorn illness adds to grazing controversy

Pneumonia is like the bird flu of the bighorn sheep world, and domestic sheep are prominent disease carriers. A recent study published by a Washington State University team confirmed what many already believed: domestic sheep, which aren’t as susceptible to M. haemolytica bacteria, transfer the bacteria when they come in contact with bighorn sheep, which then often die from it. The team modified bacteria to make them florescent, planted them in domestic sheep and then found the florescent bacteria in bighorns after they were allowed contact with domestic sheep. Wildlife managers knew bighorns tended to die from pneumonia after contacting domestic sheep, but some ranchers denied sheep were the cause. The study’s results provide more fuel for critics who argue that domestic sheep should not be allowed to graze on public lands where they could come into contact with bighorns. Pneumonia has surged recently. Bighorn sheep in neighboring states — Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Washington — experienced severe losses last winter due to pneumonia. Francis Cassiser, a wildlife biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said Idaho didn’t see the same sort of die-offs but didn’t know why...more

Uneasy Neighbors on the Open Range - NY Times

They have startled the residents of Ahwatukee, a bedroom community in southern Phoenix. They have tramped on lawns and damaged vehicles in Rio Rancho, a neighborhood of tract homes outside Albuquerque. A Border Patrol agent lost his life crashing into one of them near the Mexican border in Texas. Free-range cattle roam widely across the West, protected by centuries-old laws that give them the right of way while grazing and force landowners to fence them out. But as urban sprawl has extended into what used to be seemingly endless pasture land, cow-friendly open range laws are under fresh scrutiny, criticized as anachronistic throwbacks to the Wild West days before Interstate highways and tract homes. “People have been killed in collisions with large cows,” said Daniel Patterson, an Arizona state representative from Tucson who is pushing to scale back the rights given cows and their owners in his state. “We need to get rid of this antiquated law from the 19th century. It’s important for ranchers and other livestock owners to keep their cattle where they belong.” Laws throughout the West are already less cow-friendly than they were generations ago. Some states, like California, have open-range policies in only some rural areas. In Arizona, cows are restricted in incorporated areas, which reduces conflicts in cities but not necessarily in outer suburbs that bump up with ranch land...more

Bankrupt Yellowstone Club founder faces criminal probe

Two years after the bankruptcy of Montana's Yellowstone Club laid bare a massive real estate scheme fueled by greed, fraud and hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-advised loans, criminal investigators are probing the activities of one of the founders of the ultra-exclusive resort. Authorities would not comment on the case. But sworn depositions and interviews with key parties indicate former club owner Edra Blixseth centers in the federal investigation. Blixseth's former bookkeeper has been questioned by the FBI, and her former office manager has hired a prominent Montana criminal defense attorney. Criminal charges in the case would be another stain on the swank Yellowstone Club, a millionaires-only private ski and golf resort near Yellowstone National Park. The club counts Bill Gates and Dan Quayle among its 300 members, yet spiraled into bankruptcy when the collapse of the real estate market exposed its massive debts. It has since emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership...more

Colorado amendments would affect bingo, cattle-grazing and governing in a disaster

They're probably not exciting to most voters, but three measures on the November ballot will ask Coloradans about bingo, cattle-grazing and how to govern the state in a disaster. These are the lettered ballot measures — Amendments P, Q and R — that lawmakers referred to the ballot. Typically, referred measures make small, noncontroversial changes to the constitution, and this year's batch is not much different. Amendment R would eliminate property taxes for people or businesses that use government-owned land for a private benefit worth $6,000 or less. Essentially, this amendment would eliminate taxes paid by many ranchers who graze cattle on government land. Why give them a tax break? Counties say the amount of tax owed is often so small that the cost of collecting it is greater than the amount owed. The amendment would cost the state an estimated $46,000 a year in lost funding for schools. It would also eliminate an estimated $160,000 per year in property-tax revenue for local governments, of which $46,000 would come from local school funding...more

Ian Tyson Launches New Autobiography

Iconic Canadian songwriter Ian Tyson has written his autobiography - a frank look at his early years as half of the duo Ian & Sylvia, his success as a songwriter, his move to western Canada and his life as a rancher. Now 77, he runs a spread south of Calgary, trains quarter horses, and still plays at least 50 concerts and festivals a year in Canada and the U.S. The Long Trail: My Life in the West is published by Random House Canada, and a launch for the book is set for a free event at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel on Tuesday October 19, presented by TINARS (This is Not a Reading Series). Ian Tyson's career now spans five decades; emerging in the early '60s, his impressive catalogue includes more than 20 albums, including the platinum-selling Cowboyography. His last 13 albums have been released internationally by Edmonton-based Stony Plain Records. Tyson's songs - including "Four Strong Winds", "Someday Soon," "Summer Wages" and "Navajo Rug"- have been recorded by Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, Suzy Bogguss and dozens of other artists...more

Trew: 'The times, they are a'changing'

My grandfather Charley Trew used to shake his head and say, "the changes, they just keep a'coming." As we modernized our farming equipment and methods after the Great Depression and Dust Bowl ended, it seems we were making big changes almost every week. The same holds true today. The ideas and advertisements in farm and ranch magazines make my head swim trying to figure out how they work and how to pay for them. A visit recently with a long-time used farm equipment dealer told of a change I had not heard. Seems the high price of scrap metal for the last few years has finally about cleaned out the old horse-drawn and early tractor machinery. He said those type of auctions held on old farms are a thing of the past. Sure makes me proud of my collection of 60-plus horse-drawn implements and other old farm tools. At least I can show them to my descendants and explain how they work. Although wind power seems to be all the rage today, solar power is slowly becoming the biggest change in ranching. The long-time faithful windmill, dependable if the wind blows, has become so expensive to purchase and maintain, solar-powered water pumps are becoming more numerous. For a while the new pumps had troubles; but the latest models seem to have that solved, and our solar pumps are working in great fashion, providing water whether the wind blows or not. If Ace Reed were still alive and drawing cartoons, he would have old Jake the cowboy up on a rickety ladder by a solar panel, rag and soap bottle in hand, cleaning the hoot owl poop off the screen and wishing for days past when he was checking the oil in a windmill...more

Flying dune buggy approved for production

One of the more unusual approaches to the flying car combines a dune buggy with a propeller and a big parachute. It’s odd, but that hasn’t kept the FAA in the US from approving it for production by issuing a Special Light Sport Aircraft airworthiness certificate. The flying buggy is called Maverick and Itec, the Florida company building it, calls it transportation for “frontier areas of the world”. It’s said to be a capable off-roader that is Department of Transportation-approved for road use and classified as a powered parachute for flight. With a few hours of training, anyone can learn to fly Maverick in the relatively simple powered parachute configuration using the steering wheel and gas pedal during flight. Floats can be attached to the car for river crossings. In addition to the missionary use it was designed for, several government agencies including law enforcement have expressed interest in the Maverick, Itec claims. Other potential users include ranchers, pipeline patrols and forest fire spotters...more

You just know that someday this will end up in cow country.

Want to see it in action? Watch this video: